Spying for the People: Mao’s Secret Agents, 1949-1967

276 Pages·2013·1.53 MB·English

by  Michael Schoenhals

SpyingforthePeople
Sincetheendofthecoldwar,theoperationsofsecretpoliceinformers
have come under the media spotlight, and it is now common knowl-
edgethatvastinternalnetworksofspiesintheSovietUnionandEast
GermanyweredirectedbytheCommunistParty.Bycontrast,verylittle
historicalinformationhasbeenavailableonthecovertoperationsofthe
securityservicesinMaoZedong’sChina.However,asMichaelSchoen-
hals reveals in this intriguing and sometimes sinister account, public
security was a top priority for the founders of the People’s Republic,
and agents were recruited from all levels of society to provide intelli-
genceandferretout“counterrevolutionaries.”Onthebasisofhitherto
classifiedarchivalrecords,thebooktellsthestoryofavastsurveillance
and control apparatus through a detailed examination of the cultiva-
tion and recruitment of agents, their training, and their operational
activitiesacrossaneighteen-yearperiodfrom1949to1967.Theserev-
elations add an entirely new dimension to modern China’s troubled
social and political history. Although the story may be safely set in
the past, the development of human sources to sustain an oppressive
domesticorderisnothingifnoteerilyrelevanttostudentsofthepresent.
Professor Michael Schoenhals has researched the politics and history
of the People’s Republic of China for more than twenty-five years.
NowatLundUniversity,hispublicationsonthesubjectincludeDoing
Things with Words in Chinese Politics: Five Studies (1992) and, with
Roderick MacFarquhar, Mao’s Last Revolution (2006). In 2003, the
SwedishResearchCouncilawardedhimtheprestigious“researcherof
excellence”title.
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Spying for the People
Mao’s Secret Agents, 1949–1967
MICHAEL SCHOENHALS
LundUniversity
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Firstpublished2013
PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica
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LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Schoenhals,Michael.
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pagescm
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
1.Intelligenceservice–China–History–20thcentury. 2.Secretservice–China–
History–20thcentury. 3.Spies–China–History–20thcentury. 4.Domestic
intelligence–China–History–20thcentury. 5.Internalsecurity–China–History–
20thcentury. I.Title
jq1509.5.i6s36 2012
327.1251009′045–dc23 2012013901
isbn978-1-107-01787-0Hardback
isbn978-1-107-60344-8Paperback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyofurls
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Contents
Acknowledgments pagevii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
BoneofContention 5
MissingDimension 9
1 PublicSecurity:TheInstitutionalFramework 15
ACentralPartyMinistry 17
SovietExpertise:UnwelcomeGuidance 24
ATaleofTwoMinisters 26
TheCMPS1stBureau:PreemptingSubversion 30
DirectorsofOperations:PrimusInterPares 34
TheCMPS2ndBureau:PreventingSabotage 38
EconomicProtection:“We’reAllAmateursatThis!” 43
Cooperation:AnElusiveGoal 46
2 AgentsbyCategory:Informers,Enablers,andGuardians 51
“IsItMoral,Then?ItIsHighlyMoral” 53
SecretInvestigationAgents 58
“BuildingUpResourcesOverTime”:OperatinginEthnic
MinorityRegions 64
CaseAgents 68
CriticalAssetGuardians 76
RestrictionsonWheretoRunAgents 82
3 TheRecruitmentBase:WhereUtilityTrumpsClass 85
IdentifyingtheRecruitmentBase 87
TheBadGuys 88
TheBackwardGrayMasses 93
v
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vi Contents
TheCCP’sActivistConstituency 97
GenderMatters:NoSexPlease,We’reChinese! 101
4 FindingtheRightPersonfortheJob:OperationalProfiling 110
RationaleandPurposefulEngagement 112
NervesandDiscretion:QualitiesofaGoodAgent 114
AQuestionofTrust 118
ExploitingArchives 121
AVisittotheGrassRoots 128
TappingAdditionalSources 132
5 Recruitment 138
PreparationIsKey 139
TheRecruitmentInterview 145
ThePowerLadder 148
ThePatrioticPitch:YourCountryNeedsYou! 152
TheGradualPitch:IThoughtYou’dNeverAsk 154
TheHardPitch:AnOfferYouCan’tRefuse 156
TheAgent’sPersonalFile 159
WhenRecruitmentFails 166
6 TrainingandTradecraft:BehindtheCovertFront 170
TrainingintheAcademy 172
TextbooksandExtracurricularReadingMatter 176
LearningontheJob 179
KeepingClandestinePremises 182
UsingSecretRendezvousPremises 189
CodedConversations 192
SecretWriting 195
GadgetsandGizmos:CovertTechnologies 197
CorruptionandComplaints 201
7 AgentRunning:BeijingRules 205
Direction 207
AgentBriefing 211
AgentDebriefing 217
CovertInformationandtheCourts 220
Control 222
AgentRewardsandWelfare 225
OrderlyTermination 227
Postscript 233
Bibliography 235
Index 259
Illustrationsfollowpage14.
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Acknowledgments
Ihadnotmeanttowritethisbook.WhenIfirstapproachedtheSwedish
Research Council for funding nearly a decade ago, I had a different
book in mind – one that had been gestated on the basis of dossiers on
members of the general public maintained by China’s Communist Party
in the 1950s and 1960s. My plan was to perform an archaeological
salvage operation, to fashion accounts of lives on file in an evolving –
as I had come to think of it – dossier dictatorship. Much as I already
knew what was in the dossiers, however, it quickly dawned on me that
my understanding of their context of creation was woefully inadequate.
Somehow,beforeIcouldconfidentlytellmystories,Ineededtodevelopa
graspoftheMaoistsurveillancestate–thesystemthathadgeneratedso
muchofmyrawdata.Creditforallowingmetobegintodevelopjustsuch
agraspmustgototheanonymousfleamarketeerwhosoldmeatattered
copyofthe1957LecturesontheSubjectofAgentWork.Fromitstitlein
ChineseIwas,atthetime,notabletotellwhatthisnondescriptMinistry
ofPublicSecuritybookletwasabout,butitwouldplayaseminalrolein
theconceptionoftheresearchonwhichmyfindingswouldcometorest.
ForacceptingmyChristopherColumbus–inspireddefense(“Admittedly,
Your Majesties, I have failed to present you with a new route to India.
However, I am able to offer you instead an entirely new continent”) of
alineofinquiryresultinginabookverydifferentfromtheonetheyhad
agreed to fund, I owe the board of directors of the Swedish Research
Councilabigdebtofgratitude.
For help in locating obscure titles already in the public domain, a
specialthankstoAnn-SofiGreenandthehelpfulstaffofourlibraryhere
atLundUniversity,andtothelibrariansattheUniversitiesServiceCentre
vii
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viii Acknowledgments
for China Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. For critical
commentsonselectedchapterdrafts,abigthanksgoestoJeremyBrown,
David Chambers, and Timothy Cheek. Thanks also to Christopher P.
Atwood, Hans van de Veen, and Claire Conceison for answering my
questionsandtoIngalillBjo¨rkandCarlosTuestaSoldevillaformanaging
my research funds and helping me with institutional contacts. For his
invaluableclosereadingofmymanuscript,hishelpfulquerying,andhis
meticulousediting,abigandveryspecialthankstoAlecForss.Fortheir
professionalismandimmenselyappreciatededitorialsupport,aheartfelt
thankstoMarigoldAcland,SarikaNarula,HelenGreenberg,andCamilla
KnappatCambridgeUniversityPress.
WorkonthisbookwassupportedbyresearchgrantsfromtheSwedish
Research Council, Lund University’s Joint Faculties of Humanities
and Theology, Carl Fredrik Lyngby’s Bequest in Support of Scientific
ResearchintheFieldofSinology,theElisabethRausingMemorialFund,
Gyllenstiernska Krapperupsstiftelsen, and the Socie´te´ Royale des Lettres
deLund.Itsfirstchapterdraftswerewritteninthecongenialatmosphere
of St. John’s College, Vancouver, where for six months in the winter of
2004–5itwasmypleasuretobehostedbySt.John’sCollegeandtheCen-
terforChineseResearchattheInstituteofAsianResearch,Universityof
BritishColumbia.Researchoninstrumentsofsocialcontrolandeveryday
lifemorebroadlycontinuedduringmysixmonthsinthewinterof2005–
6 as a visiting scholar at the Contemporary China Research Institute,
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing. The final chapter revisions
werecarriedoutinAugust2011–asanaffiliateoftheCentrod’Ateneo
per la Promozione della Lingua e Cultura Italiana G. e C. Feltrinelli –
underthegiantmagnoliatreeatVillaGiulia,Gargnano,Italy.
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Abbreviations
CCP ChineseCommunistParty
CMPS CentralMinistryofPublicSecurity
CPSU CommunistPartyoftheSovietUnion
CSAD CentralSocialAffairsDepartment
KGB KomitetGosudarstvennoiBezopastnosti(Sovietsecurity
andintelligenceservice1954–91)
NEMPS NortheastMinistryofPublicSecurity
NEPSC NortheastPublicSecurityConference
NPSC NationalPublicSecurityConference
PLA People’sLiberationArmy
PRC People’sRepublicofChina
ix
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